Content about Personal finance

Retailers don’t like the fees they are required to pay Visa and Mastercard, but retailers are willing to charge unwary and unbanked consumers plenty of other fees.

WASHINGTON — Holiday shoppers are expected to spend $155.43 on average for gift cards this season, and total gift-card spending is projected to reach $27.8 billion, according to a survey released Friday by the National Retail Federation.

NRF’s 2011 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions survey, conducted by BIGresearch, found that eight in 10 shoppers will give gift cards this year, thanks to e-gifting, instant delivery through Facebook, personalized video and mobile giving options. Average spending is expected to be the highest since 2007.

Any given week Target’s circular is filled with various offers of free gift cards designed to incent shoppers to purchase key items.  Some of the offers can be quite generous, as was the case this week with a $50 gift card available to those who purchase an Xbox 360 bundle or a $20 gift card with the purchase of KitchenAid appliances priced at $99.99. The most common gift card denomination is $5, and it tends to be offered on multiple items from the same manufacturer or brand family such as two Gillette razors or three Dial products.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Borders Group said that it is faced with closing dozens of its best-performing stores due to a requirement of its bankruptcy financing if their landlords don't agree to extend a lease-negotiation period.

Borders, which filed for bankruptcy protection in February, has extension agreements for 365 stores. But the book seller said in a court filing Thursday that it is still negotiating extensions for 51 stores, many of which are among its top-selling stores, including one near Penn Station in New York.

DALLAS -- A Wall Street Journal report on Monday said that, according to court filings, Blockbuster will start closing 186 more stores by the end of the month, bringing the number of its U.S. locations closed or slated for closure to 1,145, or more than a third of its total, since the video-rental chain filed for bankruptcy protection in September.

In filings Friday with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan, Blockbuster said it will reject the leases on 186 of its stores by March 31.

Washington, D.C. -- A report released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve said that U.S. consumer borrowing rose in December for a third consecutive month, led by the first increase in credit-card charges in more than two years as holiday sales improved.

Forget looking under the tree Christmas morning. Grab the smartphone and check the inbox for an e-gift card. Walmart this week promoted an offering of 19 customizable e-gift cards as a gift-giving solution that is sure to have appeal to those who wait until Santa is halfway down the chimney. The entire transaction is handled online, from the ordering of the card, to delivery in the recipient’s inbox through redemption, which is only valid for online purchases. 

BENTONVILLE, Ark. - Wal-Mart Stores said Monday that a recent poll of consumers voted Walmart the No. 1 preferred gift card that consumers most want for Christmas.

The poll, Top 20 Gift Cards of 2010, was conducted by GiftCardRescue.com.

Walmart also announced that Walmart.com will offer free shipping to home on nearly 60,000 items through 11:30 p.m. PST on Monday. The retailer has also extended the order cut-off date for its site-to-store service from Dec. 17 last year to Dec. 20 this holiday season.

NEW YORK - Deloitte reported that six out of 10 (62%) of its holiday survey respondents plan to spend more or the same on the holidays, a 11 percentage point rise from Deloitte's 2009 holiday survey and the highest level since 2006.

Thirty-nine percent of those surveyed expect the economy to improve next year, down from more than half (54%) who anticipated an improvement at this time last year.